The thermal waste utilisation plant at Zwentendorf/Dürnrohr runs on a unique concept: garbage transported on site by rail is incinerated in an environmentally compatible process to extract energy which is then used to generate electricity and district heat.

The EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ plant went on stream exactly on schedule and in time to implement the Landfill Ordinance effective as of 1 January 2004. Thanks to this plant, Lower Austria is the only Austrian state to fully comply with the Ordinance in its most stringent and ecologically useful form, and to make sure that household and bulk waste from Lower Austrian communities is disposed of properly and in an environmentally sound manner. The EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ plant also accepts industrial waste for thermal disposal. At a capacity of over 300,000 tons per year, Zwentendorf/Dürnrohr is the largest and most modern plant of its kind in all of Austria.

Meanwhile, the first year of proper operation has successfully passed. In 2004, fully 323,000 tons of household, bulk and industrial waste have been incinerated, ensuring that the plant operates at its capacity limits. Some 190,000 tons of the garbage originated from the communities of Lower Austria. Plant operation went smoothly, and no problems have so far been encountered. EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ employs 47 staff, working in five shifts of 5 staff each.

High combustion temperatures in excess of 1,000°C and the latest three-stage flue gas cleaning technology ensure that emission rates at EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ's plant are not only far below the limits prescribed in the Austrian Clean Air Ordinance (LRV-K), but also easily undercut the emission limits mandated by the Lower Austrian Government. The daily emission rates are transmitted online to the government monitoring body and can be viewed online on EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ's homepage.

A special feature of the plant is its logistics concept which provides for 90% of the garbage to be delivered by rail. This goal was achieved already in the first year of operation. Only 10% of the volume processed at the plant had arrived by road – which translates into savings of 16,000 truck runs per year, which all goes to help the environment.

The EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ plant has a whole array of unloading systems which cover all commercial garbage discharge methods: from garbage trucks from the immediate surrounding discharging their load in a dedicated truck unloading shed to customised roll-on/roll-off ISO-edged containers, developed by EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ for unloading by an automated craneway, and the roll-on/roll-off containers provided by NÖ BAWU which are lifted off the rail by EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ special trucks. The logistic concept, developed specifically with NÖ BAWU for these containers and for delivering household and bulk waste from all parts of Lower Austria , was fluidly implemented during the plant's first year of operation.

The know-how obtained by EVN Abfallverwertung NÖ from its Zwentendorf/Dürnrohr plant has gained it international attention. Starting in March 2005, EVN is currently building a thermal waste utilisation plant in Moscow , which will handle an annual throughput of 330,000 tons of waste. For more details see the homepage of evn projektgesellschaft MSZ3 Moscow.